The cart goes over there!

[AquaGirl]

I hate a lot of things if I'm being honest. In fact, thanks to my job I hate people even though I'm generally polite. But my number one pet peeve is people who do not return their carts to the cart corral. Why does this tick me off so? I may never know. But even as a brand new mom with a baby carrier on one hand and a diaper bag the size of a horse on the other, I always took my cart back to its proper place (although I do frequent grocery stores with Parents with Children parking, love those).

So yesterday I went to Walmart. No I don’t know why. I was almost back to my car (almost made it!) when what do I see but a lovely lady and her 5 spawn of-er kids loading up the Chevy van parked 2 cars down from me. Kids are screaming, mama's not being much quieter and they generally look like extras from Deliverance. Whatever. Except-

Except!

Mama bellows "Jimmy Joe! Take that cart and getinnavan (spelling as most fits the original pronunciation) "

Jimmy Joe ( or Bubba Bo Bob Brain, whatever his name was) says "ok mama" and takes off towards the cart corral which is about a 10 second push away.

"No! We in a hurry!" Mama says. And so Jimmy Joe shoves said cart. Right into the side of my car.

Yeah.

Mama, apparently not seeing me standing at my trunk, jaw agape, says "ok now come on!" Now look, I am not confrontational but just...just no.

"Ma'am? " I said. "Wut?" Mama replied. "How about you come and get your cart since its now preventing me from getting into my car? Then we can see what, if any damage your child just did to my driver's side door panel."

Mama has the audacity to look angry at me.

"Look, we in a hurry! He ddnt hit it hard!"

"Ah, but I am in no hurry", I said, sidling over behind her car and aiming my cellphone camera at her license plate. "And I can wait the rest of the day for the cops to show up."

Yeah she moved it. She was right there was no damage. And while neither she nor Bubba apologized, they did put that f-ing cart away!

[MaggieTheCat]

Good on you. I always sigh and shake my head when we go grocery shopping and see carts all over the place. There are probably 20 cart corrals in the parking lot, you can't turn around and not see one less than a few yards from you, and yet people leave carts all over the place. It makes me sad.

On the other hand, one time last summer we had just finished our weekly shopping and were loading up our trunk with our groceries. I took the cart (as I always do) toward the nearest corral. An employee was collecting up the carts from this particular corral; he had a big line of them already pushed together and was rounding up a few others that were nearby to add to it. I walked up right before he did, and I could see he was about to say I could just leave my cart and he'd take care of it, but I went ahead and added mine to the line he already made. He got this...super-happy look on his face and said, "Thank you so much!" It made me glad that he was so happy about it, but at the same time, still a little sad, since he'd probably never actually had someone do that before.

[Argus]

Good on you. I always sigh and shake my head when we go grocery shopping and see carts all over the place. There are probably 20 cart corrals in the parking lot, you can't turn around and not see one less than a few yards from you, and yet people leave carts all over the place. It makes me sad.

A couple nights ago, I was in at a shopping center that had a Walmart near one end. There were several parking aisles that had one or two carts in the middle. I didn't check whether there was more of the same in the aisles actually in front of Walmart. (And yes, the one that was in my way as I arrived did have the Walmart logo on it.)

[bainsidhe]

Gotta wonder if this is the same jackass family van that did a hit-and-run to the tune of $2100 on my parked car. I just...

[BuffySummers]

That's why I make a point of parking next to or across from a corral. I can load the trunk, strap in Boy 1, then wheel the cart over to the corral, remove Boy 2, and head back to the car without taking my eyes off of Boy 1's door.

This was pure genius:
"Ah, but I am in no hurry", I said, sidling over behind her car and aiming my cellphone camera at her license plate. "And I can wait the rest of the day for the cops to show up."

[Midnight_Angel]

This kind of person is the very reason all supermarkets here force you to place a 1 Euro coin into a locking mechanism on the cart... which won't come back out unless you re-lock the cart with the other ones.

Yes, it's pretty annoying... especially when you don't have a f#?ing coin.

[AquaGirl]

This kind of person is the very reason all supermarkets here force you to place a 1 Euro coin into a locking mechanism on the cart... which won't come back out unless you re-lock the cart with the other ones.

Yes, it's pretty annoying... especially when you don't have a f#?ing coin.

That would be annoying but its smart. We should do that but we wont because people would whine and complain.

[Kogarashi]

That would be annoying but its smart. We should do that but we wont because people would whine and complain.

Ah, but some places around here (CT) do indeed do that. Specifically Aldi and Goodwill. Put in a quarter to use the cart, get your quarter back when you return the cart. The Goodwill may be doing that now because they're next to Aldi. I wouldn't be surprised if people were swiping Goodwill's carts to use in Aldi and then abandon in the parking lot, rather than depositing a (going to be refunded!) coin to use an Aldi cart.

[BigBird]

My favorite cart story is from last year. One of our local malls features two entrances/exits, and the shopping center area has some kind of electronic perimeter that keeps customers from physically removing the carts from the property (cart wheels won't turn if they go beyond the perimeter). Both entrance/exit points have lines and signs that state the carts can't go beyond that point.

Most people do return the carts to the corrals, but one special snowflake decided that it would be alright to leave their cart right in the middle of one of the entrances, right on the dotted lines, thereby forcing drivers to swerve around it. One brave soul decided to brave the busy traffic, and was able to dodge cars to retrieve the cart. Maybe he was being helpful, or just wanted to get the $.25 deposit back from returning the cart?

[greek_jester]

Yes, it's pretty annoying... especially when you don't have a f#?ing coin.

We have these here in the UK, but it's a £1 coin.

We also have various charities that sell key-rings that have £1 coin-sized tokens on them, so you get to donate to charity & still always have something the right size (& price! They're always a pound) to get your trolley.

That reminds me, I need to get a new one. The clip broke so my Tasmanian Devil coin got lost

[bainsidhe]

The coin thing isn't just to prevent damage to vehicles, we have a lot of folks stealing carts around here. It's neat and handy to take your groceries home instead of carrying them all, right? Of course, the carts are then abandoned all over the damn place, including miles away.

[MoonCat]

The coin thing isn't just to prevent damage to vehicles, we have a lot of folks stealing carts around here. It's neat and handy to take your groceries home instead of carrying them all, right? Of course, the carts are then abandoned all over the damn place, including miles away.

Lord, yes. I've mentioned on this site before how I see carts everywhere around here. Only one store chain makes any attempt to get them back. Aldi's is the only place that doesn't get its carts stolen, because of the coin/chain thing. Oh, and the thrift store, because they have these long metal poles attached so you can't get the cart out of the building!

[Pagan]

That's why I make a point of parking next to or across from a corral. I can load the trunk, strap in Boy 1, then wheel the cart over to the corral, remove Boy 2, and head back to the car without taking my eyes off of Boy 1's door.

Knowing how people are with the flippin' carts is exactly why I don't park near the cart corrals. I know my car is a little jacked-up, but doesn't mean I want or won't care if there's additional damage.

[mikoyan29]

One of the things I used to do when I worked at the Grocery Store was chasing carts. I hated chasing carts especially in the dead of winter. Therefore, I will always make sure the cart is in the cart corral. My least favorite part of chasing carts was the people that would tilt the cart up a bit and leave it on one of the islands like they were parking a boat or something. Gah.

[Flying Grype]

We have those coin carts in Canada too. Depending on where you shop it might want a dollar coin or a quarter. There's always some homeless guy hanging around wanting to put people's carts away for them. Brilliant, sir.